A lawyer at the Vermont Attorney General’s Office is claiming a broad exemption from transparency laws to defend the denial of a public records request.

Chief Assistant Attorney General William Griffin argued in court last month that work at the Attorney General’s Office generally is exempt from state public-records laws, unlike other state offices. The court case arose from a public-records request that the Attorney General’s Office denied…

“We get a request from EELI, and so one thing we might consider is where are they — who are these people? Where are they going with this?” Griffin told the judge. “And we Google them, and we find, you know, coal or Exxon or whatever.”